Start a War (Saint View Psychos #1)(8)

Nash frowned.

I finally sucked in a deep breath and tried to calm my racing brain. “Is he here? I didn’t know where else to go.”

Nash ran a hand through his hair. “He’s not.” His mouth pulled into a grim line. “He should be, but he’s not. I was just cussing him out to the other bartenders because he’s left us short-staffed.”

The swirling vortex of worry that had been momentarily distracted by the club, Rebel, and now seeing Nash again, opened up once more, ravaging through me and centering on my chest, making it difficult to breathe. “Nash, the noise I thought I heard…what if it really was a gunshot?”

The swirling inside me threatened to drag me straight back into panic mode.

Nash’s expression darkened by the second.

I grabbed his open shirt, trying to get his attention again. “He’s at home, right? Can you give me his address? I’ll go check on him.”

Nash already had his phone out of his pocket and pressed to his ear. He moved around the windowless office while he waited for Axel to pick up, muttering beneath his breath.

I didn’t dare move, my body rigid with a mounting worry for my brother.

“Pick up, you asshole. Pick up.”

When Nash slammed the phone down on the desk, it was very clear that Axel had not picked up.

“What’s going on?” I asked, watching him pull out the top drawer of the desk in the center of the room and pluck a set of keys from it.

Nash shook his head. “Your idiot brother isn’t answering his phone, so now I’m gonna have to go find his dumb ass. Which is going to leave us another staff member down. Fucking jackass. If I find him dick-deep in some woman at his place, I’m gonna kill him.”

“Has that happened before?”

“More than once.”

I didn’t particularly want to hear about my brother’s sex life. But on this occasion, I prayed Nash was right. Because the alternatives playing out in my head were too terrifying to think about.

“You gotta go.” Nash towered over my five feet, five inches, even with some extra height, thanks to my heels. He brushed past me, reaching for the office door, then strode by, leaving me behind.

There was no way I was staying here in this bar now that I knew Axel wasn’t here. I ran to catch up to Nash. “Wait. I’m coming with you.”

He stopped before we hit the main bar area and turned back to me. “Uh, no you’re not. Go home, Bliss.”

“He’s my brother. I’m coming.”

“Not a chance. You don’t know this town. Or the people your brother hangs out with.”

I ground my teeth together. I didn’t remember him being this bossy when I was a kid. “I grew up in this town, if you’ve forgotten. And I know you.”

Nash laughed. “Sweetheart, you don’t know me from a bar of soap.”

He was right. I knew his name, and his face, and that I’d always felt safe with him, but that was all. How well could a five-year-old truly know a nineteen-year-old? Neither of us had been those people in a very long time.

“Fine, I don’t know you. But you don’t know me either. I’m not that na?ve little kid anymore.”

He stopped and stared at me and then laughed. “No offense, but you have no idea what you’re doing here. Do you even have a clue how close you probably just came to losing that fancy necklace hanging above your tits? Any one of those guys could have ripped it off your neck in a heartbeat, and you wouldn’t have had a chance in hell of stopping him.”

I was sure all the color drained from my face. “That wouldn’t happen.”

He leaned down, getting in my face. “It would. And a whole lot worse. Those guys out there aren’t gentlemen. I toss ’em out if I see it happen, but I’m one person.”

“Rebel’s a woman, and she seems fine.”

“Rebel keeps a set of brass knuckles in her back pocket and has never hesitated to use them. You got a set tucked into your panties?”

I scowled at him.

“Didn’t think so.” He grabbed my arm again and towed me through the crowd, shooting death stares at any male who looked in my direction. He clearly had their respect because they all stepped out of the way.

The two bouncers nodded at Nash, and then we were outside once more. Nash stopped in front of my car and stared at it like it was an alien spacecraft.

“Oh, fuck me. This is yours, I suppose?”

“What?” I snapped, pulling my hand away from his sharply. “You don’t like BMWs?”

He didn’t answer my question. “Go home, Bliss. Just…go home. Don’t worry about your brother. I’ve had his back all these years. Today ain’t no different.”

With that, he left me at my car and strode to a beat-up black Jeep.

Anger coursed through me at the insinuation I hadn’t had Axel’s back. Like it was my fault we hadn’t seen each other in years.

Nash’s engine roared to life, and his headlights came on, shining directly into my eyes. “I go by Bethany-Melissa now, asshole!” I yelled as he drove past.

He didn’t answer.

“I like Bliss better,” one of the security guards spoke up.

I whirled around and glared at him.

The two of them burst into laughter.